Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:00:00]:
Welcome advocates to another episode of the Leading Equity podcast, a podcast that focuses on supporting educators with the tools and resources necessary to ensure equity at their schools. Today's special guest is doctor Haley Watson. So without further ado, Haley, thank you so much for joining us today.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:00:19]:
Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:00:21]:
Pleasure is always mine. I'm excited for today's topic. You are the author of Finding the Words Empowering Struggling Students Through Guided Conversations and I I am so excited because we're gonna be talking about what does that look like, those guided conversations. But before we get started, I'd love for you to share a little bit about yourself and what you currently do.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:00:40]:
Absolutely. So I am a clinical psychologist, and my PhD was in school bullying intervention. So I started off always sort of developing programs for young people who were in situations that were challenging with their peers and then kind of have extended that out outwards from there. I've kind of lived all over the world and worked all over the world and studied all over the world. So I did some work in the UK with young people that had sort of fallen through the cracks of social services, and that was really, really valuable and empowering work. I loved that work. That was before becoming a psychologist. And then I lived in Australia and worked as a psychologist there.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:01:18]:
I also grew up in Canada and did some work with youth justice in in that was part of my background early on. And now I'm based in LA. And so what I do today is I create my company creates mental health programs for schools. So our aim is to teach every single student the mental health skills that they need to thrive. So really making sure that kids that don't have access to therapy or to psychology or mental health services are building a core skill set so that we're really looking at prevention instead of waiting until we get to a place where we're really not in a good way with our mental health, which we all do in in our world. You know, our mental health is something that we all struggle with at at different points in our life. And so really to empower every single student with those skills. So we have classroom based resources, and then this book is helping educators have some of those conversations.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:02:11]:
Again, not to put them in the role of needing to be a mental health expert, but just to really understand that there are so many people in a young person's life that can positively support their mental health without being a therapist, without being in that kind of therapeutic space.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:02:27]:
So the preventative measures because sometimes we wait too late. And then folks are you know, it's we're we're calling in the expert experts at this point. And so it sounds like you have some strategies that you provide for students to maintain their self care, self care plans, things like that. Is that correct?

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:02:43]:
Yeah. Absolutely. It's really you know, there's a a number of things that we can do and that we can teach kids, and a lot of it focuses on self awareness, recognizing, you know, why am I feeling this way? If I'm getting into a friendship challenge, why is this happening? Why do I not feel that comfortable around that person? Why do I feel bad about myself around that person? Why do I struggle with academics? Why am I putting myself down? You know, all there's always these reasons behind the things that are hard in our life because we have the challenge that we're facing, and then we have the story our mind makes up about that challenge. And then we have the the circumstances in in our life. And so if we can teach kids to really notice all of that and then be able to use skills to help them navigate it. So, oh, I noticed that around that friend, I always kinda feel a little bit less than. Maybe I need to set a boundary with them or maybe I need to to form a different friendship that is a little bit more positive and uplifting for me. It's those really sort of basic in a certain way, but also complicated and and high level skills that require a lot of thoughtfulness and critical thinking and self reflection and and courage to be able to use.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:03:54]:
And so just like any other skill in school, it's something that we need to all of us need to practice and learn. We don't we're not born knowing it. It's something that we have to really do as much as possible so that when we're in those tough situations, we can call on those skills.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:04:08]:
Alright. Well, let's let's get into this. We we're gonna talk about it. Now one of the things that stood out to me with with the book, in the title of the book, it says empowering struggling students through guided conversations. Now for my listeners out there, a lot of us consider the word struggling as a deficit word, like, meaning, oh, they they don't have something and and so they're behind or whatever it might be. And so a lot of the language that we utilize these days is on the opposite end. We wanna approach it from an asset based mindset as opposed to a deficit mindset. So I don't want to misunderstand or misrepresent your meaning behind that phrase that the term empowering struggling students.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:04:54]:
So I wanna start there. What did you mean by that?

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:04:56]:
It's a great question. So the word struggling, I think it is a really important thing that you bring up in terms of deficit versus kind of, you know, looking towards strengths. The reason I use the word struggling is because we all struggle. So it's not about certain students struggle and other students don't struggle. What it's about is being honest and real about that struggle. Because one of the biggest barriers to student mental health, and this is also for us as adults or in our world, we always try to hide when we're struggling. We think we always have to show only our strength and show only the brave face and only show the world this polished version of ourselves. And, of course, social media amplifies that.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:05:39]:
And what's lacking in our world, I would say, is not what's lacking in each person. Each person has absolutely everything they need to thrive. But what's lacking is is that we don't make it safe to be able to say, hey. This is hard for me. I'm not okay with this situation. This is something that is a struggle for me. If we can acknowledge that and we can say that, that is so empowering. So that's what we're trying to to teach is the ability for a student to say, this is an area that's a struggle for me.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:06:12]:
Therefore, this is an area where I might wanna seek some help or I might wanna apply one of the skills that I have. But it all starts from that level of awareness of being able to acknowledge that. So that's why I use that that word. So it's, again, it's not about segmenting certain students under that category. We all fall under that category.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:06:29]:
Listen, we we all struggle from time to time and I'm

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:06:31]:
with

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:06:32]:
you I'm with you on that. So okay. Alright. So okay. Okay. So let me do this because I think I'm doing some research and I just happened to be talking in my research, I'm talking about gender and it's talking about boys and girls and so sometimes the idea of a boy saying that he's struggling or needing help versus a girl saying she's struggling and needing help. There's often dot different dynamics in that. A lot of times boys aren't comfortable with admitting, hey, I'm I am struggling.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:07:04]:
I need some help, and often girls, are are more inclined to do so. And and I'm just kinda curious on your end, in your research, your experience, is that the case for you as well?

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:07:16]:
Yeah. I would definitely say not always. Obviously, there's always exceptions. But as a general rule, it does seem to be harder for boys, and I would say the reason for that is entirely cultural. So I wouldn't say that that boys have any less of an ability to be vulnerable and real and raw. It's not that they're lacking in a skill set. It's that there aren't a lot of in our culture, we still have a bit of a an image that, you know, men don't cry and the men have to be strong and there's this sort of stereotype that's really you know, it's in media. It's it's everywhere.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:07:51]:
And so and it takes a long time. You know, when when we were growing up, that was really, really prolific. And so all of the dads now, you know, they didn't learn that they could be real you know, vulnerable and cry. And so a lot of the times, you know, when I work with kids, they'll say, well, I've never seen my dad cry. And it's not because their dads aren't super engaged and emotionally aware and all of those things. They're wonderful, wonderful dads. It's just that was something that they didn't, you know, learn was the right way to handle those emotions. And so it's even just that, just what do we see when we're a young when you're a young boy and you look around and and what's sort of encouraged.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:08:27]:
And so that's one of the big things that's so important is what we show kids and the environment and what we teach them really lands. They are sponges. They pick up on everything. So that that's what I see happening is still just that the the culture around us. It tells us, you know, it's if a girl is crying, it still happens. We all do this. Usually, we go console her and, you know, we we give her a lot of attention and communication. And if a boy is crying, we kinda say, oh, you're fine.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:08:57]:
And and it's subtle. It's like it's subliminal bias. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And we don't mean to. And I think that's, you know, it's like this these unconscious biases that we have around gender are still play a role in our in our world.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:09:11]:
So when you're so what's your resources and your strategies that you present to say such as schools and kind of developing those those skills? Is your approach different when let's say, do you would you work with a group of all boys or a group of all girls? Or if you did a coed thing, would I mean, would the strategies be varied? Like, or is it all kind of the same? How how does that work?

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:09:33]:
I love this question because one of the most important things about what we do is really reinforcing that we're all underneath the same. You know? Even though there's so many differences, there's so many things that make our circumstances different, our realities different, we really have to honor and acknowledge those differences. But underneath, we all have a basic ability or basic need to belong. We all have these abilities of how to communicate. We all have feelings that are valid and need to be processed and acknowledged. And so our resources actually empower the teachers. So we don't go in there and do do interventions ourselves. We give the the resources to teachers, and teachers are leading their class.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:10:19]:
And I would say when you're working with a group of all boys or a group of all girls or coed and that goes for any other type of of, you know, difference between students, you know, a group of students that are all one way, all another way. Really, the skills are the same. Okay. But the way that they might process those skills or learn those skills or communicate those skills, that varies, of course, with individuality and with different types of of young people. But, you know, boys and girls, you know, need to learn, you know, kids of all genders, kids of every different background and circumstance. We all need to learn the same core skill set in terms of our mental health.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:10:56]:
Alright. Self care plans. Let's say I am an introverted person, which I actually am a very introverted person. So when it comes to that prevention that we talked about early on, k, I wanna make make sure that I don't wait till things blow up because I keep a lot of things inside. I ball things up and and then all of a sudden it culminates to the place. This was the last straw and then all of a sudden, boom, things can blow up. Oh, if we're talking about extroverts and we're talking about introverts and and we have those type of students in our classrooms, in our schools, in our hallways, some that are gonna readily express themselves, some that are gonna just keep things themselves or just kinda keep it close tight to a small group of folks, a a short a small circle. Talk to me about some of the strategies for those varying type of personalities that maybe those who are more open versus those who might might be a little bit more close when it comes to those conversations and reaching out.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:11:49]:
Absolutely. So I think the important thing to always remember is whatever comes naturally to us, the opposite of that is where we need to grow

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:11:58]:
and learn.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:11:59]:
I would say and it's it's a good distinction because, again, we we have these ideas in our mind about what's good and what's bad or what what's better and what's worse or right and wrong when it comes to these things. And so we would naturally think, oh, the the the child that's extroverted and can express themselves, they're gonna fare better with their mental health. The child maybe that's introverted and can't speak about it as much. But the child that's extroverted and shares their feelings a lot, oftentimes kids in those situations, and I was one of those kids, what we need to learn is how to just be with ourselves. A lot of the times when we're being really extroverted, we're just trying to sort of dump our feelings everywhere else and we're not really able to calmly notice and recognize, oh, this is how I'm feeling. We kind of project everything out. So kids who are really, you know, communicative and able to share things often need to slow down a little bit and learn that skill of, can I just be with this feeling without needing to verbally process it, without needing to make it someone else's? So that's that that growth edge there. And then for kids that don't speak as much, they're good at that.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:13:02]:
They're great at sitting with that feeling. But maybe their growth edge is, how do I speak up? How do I share something? And, really, this skill, just like anything else, it has to happen in baby steps. So this is one of the things that's so important. There are so many helplines out there for kids. You know, we know that. We know that there are so many resources that young people can turn to, but they're not accessing them. And this is a really important thing to remember. We can't just say, hey.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:13:28]:
Go to the counselor if you're feeling upset. Because if you've never had a conversation, if you're one of those kids that never talks about what they're feeling, maybe your family doesn't talk about that, maybe you don't talk about that in your friend group, that is a massive leap to pick up the phone or walk into a counselor's office and just say, woah. I'm gonna now talk about what I'm feeling. So though that, again, it has to be in baby steps. So the first step is probably writing it down. Let's just see if I can articulate what are the things that I wanna say and then choosing someone that you feel really, really comfortable with and and just having that conversation with them first and practicing that and and then moving up from there. So, again, just like anything else, it's really looking at yourself as a unique person and looking at the situation and saying, what is the thing that I naturally do? How can I lean a little bit the other way? And how can I just take really small steps to get myself there knowing that I don't have to become extroverted if I'm introverted? And I don't have to become introverted if I'm extroverted, but I can just balance myself out a little bit in terms of what I naturally tend towards.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:14:32]:
Is that trusted person an adult or, like, a best friend? Like, who who's the trusted person?

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:14:39]:
So the trusted person is whoever feels good to that person. It's really unique to the individual. But what's really important when we're adults and we're working with with kids is that we make sure that there is at least one adult that is in their circle that they are talking to. Because sometimes and and, again, every child situation is unique. Sometimes a best friend is the perfect person and that's the right person to provide the right support. But when it comes to our mental health, we do need a little bit of guidance sometimes. We do need to be sort of coached in the right direction. And sometimes our best friend is really good at listening, but they might not have any idea of what kind of advice to give us.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:15:20]:
And they might say, oh, if that's hard for that you, that situation's hard, why don't you avoid it? That's what most kids would say. Right? Whereas, actually, maybe that's a hard situation, but we need to face it. So, again, the first person you talk to whoever feels right for that young person, but then making sure that there also is an adult that, again, has a little bit of that bird's eye view and can give them a little bit of coaching and guidance.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:15:44]:
Yeah. I wonder, like, is that something that we teach kids as far as choosing the right person because I'm thinking like let's say I have 3 friends and and that then that's it that's that's that's the crew right and that's all I don't know the people that are open up to those are the folks but then maybe one person is just kind of like a yes person. Maybe they'll just all day. They're they're they're not gonna tell me legit how, you know, to keep it real. And then maybe there's another friend that is more of the cheerleader type that, yeah, yeah, you got this. You can go go go whatever it is. And then there's that third person that is gonna, you know, sit you down like, dude, what are you doing? Like, you're wiling right now. Like, there's there's there might be different so do we teach that skill, like like you mentioned, like, whoever feels right to you?

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:16:27]:
Absolutely. So this is one of the reasons why I'm so passionate about our school mental health program is because that exactly what you described is a really challenging skill set to learn. Do you understand how to navigate that? And the only way you can is if you really learn to tune in to how you feel after interacting with people and also what your ultimate goals are. You might feel really, really good after talking to the cheerleader, but then you notice, yeah, I feel great, but I'm not really ending up, you know, progressing in my life. I'm kind of just staying stagnant. Whereas, you know, noticing when someone speaks the truth to us, even if it hurts, even if it's not what we wanna hear, we can learn how to recognize that as truth and to go, okay, that is the person that I need to listen to. But you're right. It's a skill we need to practice.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:17:15]:
And the way we practice it, honestly, is by coming up against discomfort, coming up against truths that might not feel great to us. You know, looking at, oh, how am I treating my friends? What are the words that I'm saying to myself? You know, am I holding myself back in some way? And so that's why we have to continually teach this skill set, and we need to get comfortable as educators and adults in having an environment where we're we're having these conversations, where we're really deep inquiry into the self of what do I feel and what is the feeling that I want to listen to in this situation?

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:17:52]:
Okay. Let's get a little bit more specific. In your book, you have first person accounts on on students and the kind of work helping them through challenging situations. I'd love for you to share something. And then, folks, we want you to get the book. But if you can, Haley, just share an experience, a first person account that that we can find. It kinda help get a little bit more specific in this conversation?

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:18:13]:
For sure. So the first one that comes to mind, I mean, one of the things that was amazing to me about writing this book is that it came from interviews I had done with kids all over the world over the past few years for our program because we feature documentary stories in our program. So it was this beautiful thing where I got the chance to really have these deep dive conversations with students to be able to kind of help them navigate the challenge, and then that is what students get to see to to help themselves. So the one that stands out to me is this awesome girl. She was about 14 and just had dropped out of school, hated school, was, like, not into school at all. And so I sat down to talk to her, and and she just didn't wanna talk to me at all. You know, who are you? I'd never met her before. You know, and we we put this out to say, who wants to come and be part of our mental health program, and we're gonna film you, and we're gonna have this dialogue.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:19:04]:
And I'm I'm pretty sure, like, her brother signed her up or something. She was like, I do not wanna be here. And it was such a powerful conversation for me to be part of because the image she was showing the world was one of, I don't care. I'm too cool for this. I'm disinterested. I and and I think everybody in her life believed that story. You know? Okay. This is a kid who, you know, is a quote, unquote bad kid.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:19:30]:
This is a kid who, you know, is a troublemaker, yada yada. And just by listening to her, I think this is what's so important, sitting down and saying, I wanna hear your story, and I wanna hear a little bit why you don't like school. And I had to ask her a few times. Her first response was, well, it's stupid and it's boring. But just by validating her by saying, I really care what you have to say, and I asked her a number of times, did something happen at school that didn't feel great for you? And at first, the answer was no. No. No. But just by sitting and listening and she could tell that I respected her, she could tell that I really genuinely wanted to know, She finally opened up and said, you know what? She'd been picked on at her school.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:20:19]:
She struggled actually with her hearing, so she often struggled to hear what was happening, and other kids were calling her stupid. And she was also treated poorly, and people were talking about her the way she looked. And these experiences, that is exactly the reason why she put up this this front and this protective armor, of course. Who wouldn't? Who wouldn't try to protect themselves when they're in a situation where they're feeling so much pain? And so what I love about that dialogue and and sharing that dialogue in the book and really breaking it down in terms of how do we navigate that is what kids need in that situation is to or what we need to remember is that there's always gonna be pain underneath that anger. And what those kids need is just someone to sit and listen and care enough and be gentle enough to get to that. And and it really it takes not taking things personally. Because at first, she was, like, not having it. I don't like you.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:21:17]:
I don't like anything about you. And that was okay. It's okay to sort of feel that way because, you know, adults in her life had not been that kind to her. So I I love that story because it really helped me learn and it helps, hopefully, helps educators learn that that piece and that reminder of what is really going on with that student and how can we create that space where we can get to the core and heart of it. And, again, the thing that's important to remember, we can't fix a student's life. That's the hard part. We can't make it all better. We can't make sure that this student is gonna go on and, you know, graduate and and all of those things.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:21:54]:
But what we can do is create moments in their life that break the pattern, that that is a moment where they're validated and heard and understood. And the more moments kids have, the more they're able to string those together and build up their own self esteem and make some decisions that are in line with where they wanna go in their life.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:22:14]:
But what I'm hearing and thank you for your answer. I mean, I I totally agree. We we we can't change kids' lives. You know, sometimes people had that savior mindset. He's like, you know, if it's not you know, if I don't do it, the kids need to be saved and and then this is my job, this is my duty. And I see a lot of teachers that are coming, working various type of school settings with the mindset that they're here to say. They're here to make the difference that that's needed. I I think that there is a an empathetic approach to to to take, but sometimes they go from the sympathy.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:22:46]:
They feel bad for the students. They feel, you know, oh, just feel so sorry for them. And I don't think that that is the right mindset to have when you approach it there. I mean, what what are your thoughts there?

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:22:57]:
I absolutely agree. I think that is what creates deficit because then I'm saying, you know, I way, even though you don't mean it, you're saying I'm better than you, and no one's better than anyone else. And who are we to judge where someone is at at their journey and what their life needs to become and and where and, you know, what are the what's their story and how is it gonna unfold? And so what I really recommend and what the book is all about is that's where the word empowering comes in. So we're empowering them through the struggle. So I I'm I can be a coach, but I can't be on the field with you. I can stand beside you and say, hey. I under I get it. I see you're struggling.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:23:36]:
I care about you. That's really important. And then the second part of every conversation has to be what power do you have in this situation because you have more power than you realize. And what skills can we use, and how can you maybe shift the way you're seeing things? And what happened in that conversation that I was talking about earlier was by this awesome girl starting to see, oh, I didn't like it because I was treated badly. All of a sudden, even if it was just in that conversation, in that moment, she flipped and realized, oh, yeah. Maybe it's not because it's my fault. Maybe it's not because I'm not good enough to be in school. Actually, I wasn't treated that well.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:24:14]:
So for that moment, she remembered her power and she remembered to go, wait a minute. Okay. You know, this is something I probably can do more than I realize and I'm and so I don't need to put myself in this box of someone that can never do school. So I think the to empower someone, we have to believe in their power and that's that's where that sort of empathy versus sympathy, you know, changes things.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:24:37]:
Yeah. So let's talk about some strategies, and I know there's plenty of strategies within the book, but I'd love for you to share with our our educators out there who are listening. When it comes to empowering students, struggling students through guided conversation, what kind of strategies could you provide to our listeners out there?

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:24:55]:
So there's 6 core strategies that I talk about in the book, and I'll just briefly touch on them here because and the thing to remember is whatever you do is amazing. I think as an educator, it can get really overwhelming in terms of what am I supposed to say? Am I saying the right thing? And I think, you know, you even listening to this, even even paying attention and caring about your students and having the intention of helping them, that's enough. So I think we just to to take the pressure off that it has to be the perfect thing. But the 6 strategies that are really vital, the first one is validation. And that means just simply saying, I see you. I care about you. I hear you. What you're saying is valid.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:25:34]:
So really making sure you give them that, you know, yes. Thank you for sharing that. The next one is helping them navigate their feelings. So really just asking them about their feelings. How do you feel about that, you know, mark that you just got on that test? How do you feel about your friendships? And just encouraging them to start thinking about their feelings. The next one is to really help them recognize their patterns. This is a a little bit of a tricky one, but just gently helping them notice. Hey.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:26:02]:
You know? You notice when you're around that friend group, you're always pretty loud and boisterous. You know? Do you notice that? You know? Or I notice every time we have an assignment coming up, you get quiet and hang in the back of the room. Do you wanna talk about that a little bit? Just helping them notice. Because when we're young, we don't know what we're doing. We don't recognize that we're maybe caught in a cycle. So gently doing that. And the more we've connected and validated them, the more we can say those things without it feeling really confronting for students, but we've gotta help them recognize that. So those three skills really help students start to self reflect.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:26:37]:
And then the second three skills are all about helping them take action. How can I help myself in this situation? So the first one is helping them shift their paradigm. So that just means helping them see things a different way. So like I did with with the girl who didn't like school, helping them recognize, oh, I don't like school not because I'm terrible at it, but because people weren't nice to me. So just pointing out, you know, hey, maybe you don't like tests because you get a little bit nervous, not because you're bad at them or maybe you're failing these tests, not because you you lack intelligence, but because maybe you need a few tweaks in the way you're studying. You know? So just changing that narrative in their mind. The next one is about remembering their power. So that's really simple in terms of pointing out even simple things like I know you've got this or you probably have more courage than you realize or, hey, I saw you do that really, you know, great thing in sport.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:27:33]:
You know, I bet you you can use that skill now. You know, I saw you, you know, whatever it is, be be really powerful on the basketball court. You know, I know you have this courage in you, whatever it is. And then piece of of strategy is helping them use a skill. And this is the one we think is the only one that go you know, that they can do is, and the skill honestly doesn't matter. It could be anything. Could be them taking a deep breath. It could be them thinking a different thought.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:27:57]:
It could be them setting a boundary with someone. But if we encourage them to do something to help themselves, that's what gives them agency. So we're not sweeping in and saying, let me fix this for you. Let me, you know, tell that student off because they were mean to you. Sure. We need to help and encourage and set boundaries for them and all those things, but they need to be able to do something in a moment that's hard to help themselves. And if you encourage them and you're simply asking them, hey. What do you usually do when things are hard for you? Can you try that now? You know, that's a really simple way to really encourage them to start going, oh, I do have a skill set.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:28:31]:
I can help myself. So those are the 6 strategies. Again, the pressure's off in terms of when and how and what order. But if you can try to incorporate one of those in in an interaction with a student, it will help them tremendously.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:28:45]:
Just one of them would make a big difference is what I'm hearing.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:28:48]:
Exactly.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:28:48]:
Yeah. Okay. Well, I appreciate this, and and this is very helpful. And I'm I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of the book as well. I I've already learned a lot, and I think at the end of the day, what you're doing already, teachers, we we we're assuming that you're already trying and what you're doing works. So we're providing some additional support for you in those those aspects. I'd love, Haley, for you to take us home with maybe one final word of advice you wanna provide to our listeners. Yeah.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:29:15]:
So I think what you just said is really poignant, and I wanna echo that. Educators have the hardest job. And to balance all of the things that you're balancing and pay attention to students' mental health can seem really overwhelming and daunting. And I just want to really reinforce that you just showing up and and caring about your students is light years ahead of probably what you realize that, you know, in terms of the impact that you're having. The ripple effect of that is massive. So really remembering how much you're already doing and remembering that just showing up and caring about each of your students, paying attention to them, noticing when things are hard for them, that's really all you need to do on a day to day basis. And then all of these other things, you'd you know, you sprinkle them in as and when you can, but really just remembering that you are doing so much already and keep doing what you're doing. I'm so grateful for you, each and every one of you.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:30:15]:
So thank you for for the work that you do.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:30:18]:
Alright. Once again, I'm talking to doctor Haley Watson, author of Finding the Words Empowering Struggling Students Through Guided Conversations. Haley, if we have some folks that wanna connect with you, what's the best way to reach you online?

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:30:29]:
LinkedIn is great. Doctor Haley Watson on LinkedIn. Also, open parachute schools.com is our website with all of our resources, and you can find information about my book on there as well. Alright.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:30:40]:
Thank you again.

Dr. Hayley Watson [00:30:41]:
Thanks so much for having me.

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